With Eclectic Ideas for Good Taste

May 2018

WATAUGA COUNTY

The Boone Area and Blowing Rock chambers of commerce hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Eric Reeves’ new business, reFresh Your Space. The business handles staging, as seen on TV home-improvement shows. But instead of just moving furniture into a property for-sale, Reeves will perform a walk-and-talk, picking up ideas and giving customers advice as he goes. For people not selling their homes, he offers help with decluttering, downsizing, space planning, holiday decorating, and other questions of interior design. Reeves has a degree in advertising from Appalachian State University; he finessed multiple projects while enrolled at the Harrington Institute for Interior Design in Chicago, and he has been a licensed realtor for 13 years. One of his projects sold for $200,000 over its purchase price in less than 45 days and was featured on the HGTV program My House is Worth What? Reeves tries to get clients to view their former homes as a product, and he considers it his job to bring out the potential value. The National Association of Realtors has determined over 90% of homebuyers now begin searching online, and the Real Estate Staging Association claims homes that have been professionally staged before listing spend, on average, 90% less time on the market. The difference in marketing time translates to thousands of dollars in mortgage payments and carrying costs, hours of stress and worry, and usually one price reduction of around $10,000.